Everything tilted and sizzled. She had a vague impression of a dimly lit room, some clutter, some of which he kicked away as he carted her to a bed with dark wooden spindles and cool white sheets.
Then she might have been anywhere—the forest, the ocean, a city sidewalk, a country meadow. There was nothing but him, the weight of him pressed down on her, the big hands roaming, the urgent mouth seeking, taking. Nothing but those cool white sheets growing warmer, warmer as he tugged the sweater over her head, tossed it aside.
Everything about her was so small and exquisite. The breasts that fit so perfectly into his palms, the hands that dived under his shirt to glide over his skin. He wasn’t a clumsy man, but feared he would be with her, and tried to slow his pace, smooth out his rhythm.
But her hips arched up, her fingers dug into bunched muscles, urging him on.
He wanted her naked, as simple and basic as that. He wanted that pretty little body uncovered for him, stripped bare for his hands, for his mouth.
He reached down, tugged at the buckle of her belt. She spoke, the words muffled against his lips.
“What? What?” If she’d said stop, he’d kill himself.
“Boots.” Her lips roamed over his face, then her teeth nipped at his jaw. “Boots first.”
“Boots. Right. Right.” Already winded, and a bit disconcerted by it, he slid down, knelt at the foot of the bed, yanked at her right boot. He tossed it; it landed with an abrupt thump. As he tugged on the left, she levered up, got a grip on his hair and yanked his head back to hers.
“You look— It’s all shadowy, and I can just hear the rain starting, and my heart’s pounding so hard.” She punctuated the words with wild kisses. This time when he threw the boot, something crashed and shattered.
“Yours, let me get yours.” She wiggled back for his boot. “They have to go, have to go because I have to get you naked or I’ll go out of my mind.”
“I was thinking the same of you.”
“Good, good.” Her laugh, shaky with nerves and excitement, raced up his spine. “Same page, same station.” She shoved the first boot to the floor. “Put your hands on me, would you? Anywhere, everywhere. I’ve almost got this.”
She couldn’t know it, but she’d gotten her wish. She’d dazzled him. “Will it shut you up?”
“Maybe. Probably. There!” She pried off the boot, dropped it.
And flew at him.
She nearly upended them both off the bed, but he managed to wrap around her and roll. Even as he sank into the next kiss, her hands got busy on his shirt. “You’ve got such great shoulders. I just want to—” She dragged it off, pulled the thermal beneath it up and away.
She made a sound like a woman licking melted chocolate from a spoon as her hands ran over his pecs, up to his shoulders, down to squeeze his biceps.
“You’re so strong.”
“I won’t hurt you.”
She laughed again, no nerves this time. “I’m not going to promise the same.”
Agile and quick, she reached back, unclipped the clasp of her bra. “Made it easy for you.”
“I’m up for difficult work.” He drew the bra aside. “Now be quiet, so I can concentrate on it.”
In a moment she couldn’t think, much less speak. So many sensations rushed over her like his hands that thrilled, that took, that tortured. Those rough, workingman palms, the prickly stubble of a daylong beard—thrill over thrill on her quivering skin.
Boys, she realized. Every one who’d ever touched her had been a boy compared to him. All too smooth, too easy, too practiced. Now she had a man who wanted her.
He wasted no time peeling her out of the jeans, exploring her body, feasting on it.
She’d brought the whirlwind in the woods. Now he stirred one inside her just as reckless and wild.
She gave to him, with no hint of restraint or shyness—a bounty of delights and demands that aroused him beyond reason. Her gasp or groan fired more needs, her willful hands sparked nerves over and under his skin. And her mouth, restless and hungry, stirred in his blood like a drug.
Mad for her, he took her hands, drew her arms back until they both gripped the spindles.
When he drove into her, he thought, for a moment, the world exploded. It shook him, the force of it, blinded him, the brilliance of it. Left him, for that breath of time, utterly weak.
